14 months

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It’s been a stupidly busy month. As you may have seen in my previous post, we’ve moved house so it’s been fun going back to work and settling A into nursery whilst packing and moving and adding a much longer commute into the mix! I’ll get on to my usual updates (albeit briefly) in a bit but I wanted to write a bit about how the transition back to work and to nursery has gone.

I was really really really really really (this could go on for a while but I do want to watch University Challenge) upset about having to go back to work. Not because I didn’t want to go to work but because I didn’t want to be apart from A. I’ve been with him virtually 24/7 for most of the last 13 months so it was really difficult to imagine not being with him. He had a couple of settling in sessions at nursery in the week before he was due to start but they were both very short (about an hour at most) and I stayed with him for the first one and then left him at the second one. The second one did not end well and he was sobbing and taking great heaving breaths when I came back and he didn’t even easily calm down when he had a feed. The day perked up as it was Aunty C’s special birthday so he had lots of attention from his second cousins and we all enjoyed a lovely lunch out. Our visit was cut short by a short snow flurry so we set off back home to avoid getting stranded though it would have been fine!

He cried a lot when I handed him over at nursery on his first day and I was upset between leaving him and getting to work but I pulled myself together and once I was finally logged on and getting back into the swing of things it was a lot easier to put the worry to one side. And, as cliched as it sounds, it was quite nice to enjoy a simple of cup of hot tea in peace and I do find it quite restful! When we collected A that day he was very upset when he saw me and refused to be put down and wanted to guzzle lots of milk when we got home (which he then chundered most of as it was clearly far too much!) but the boy-who-doesn’t-nap did have a short sleep! He has a very cute and useful diary where the nursery staff tell us what he’s eaten and how much he ate, when he’s had his nappy changed (and what was in it; wet or BM….) and what he’s enjoyed playing with and doing.

On the whole, he’s settling in pretty well. We’ve had ups and downs thanks to conjunctivitis and a ridiculously annoying cough that won’t go away (which me and Mr.J have had/still have – as well!). Today was the first day that he didn’t cry when I collected him; he was off playing where he didn’t see me come in and when Miss.Lucy (his key worker) said “Who is here to see you?” he nonchalantly glanced over from whatever he was up to and smiled when he saw me and rushed over and wanted to be picked up, but with no tears! I’m sure it won’t happen tomorrow but it was so lovely that he was just happy to see me instead of being upset 🙂

Movement: Since he’s started at nursery, where they have a set of small stairs with a tunnel and a slide, he’s started to want to come down stairs holding your hands and facing forwards. He’s also willing to hold my hand when we’re walking in the house which is very helpful. And he’s getting very good at climbing up on to things!!

Teeth: Still just the six teeth. I am flabbergasted by the fact that teeth 7, 8,9 and 10 have yet to emerge.

Eating: I was in shock when I saw his nursery diary from his first day with not only what food he’d eaten but how much! Unless he’s been feeling under the weather he eats lots at nursery and has been eating much more at home too. Though I’ve had much less success with fruit as snacks at home than nursery! One really useful thing he now does is sit to have snacks and drinks though. Again, I think this is a peer-learning thing from nursery but it’s cute and much more practical than him wandering around the house eating (special and stupidly expensive and very orange baby) “ciiiiisp” (aka crisps). In the last week he’s also started to drink milk out of a cup at home and in the last few days he has hardly had any milk from me during the day so I think our breastfeeding journey is starting to come to an end.

Sleep: This isn’t the best day to write about this as we had a pretty ropey night last night. On the whole things have settled into a bit of a routine of waking at about 10pm (earlier if we’re unlucky), then somewhere between 3-4am and then again at 6am and it’s a bit of a lottery after that. His napping is a bit erratic at nursery but he usually has at least 45 minutes and he has had the odd day when he’s slept for 1.5-2 hours and it seems he’ll just go to sleep with a bit of back patting at nursery! I’ve tried to do this at home but it’s not worked. Obviously. He did have a 2 hour nap in his travel cot at the weekend though and I very much enjoyed a sit down with a cookie and cup of tea! I went for a walk with him in the pram on Friday so he’d sleep and this was the view near our new house – a bit different from the park. I really need to get a proper babywearing coat so we can be toasty warm with him in back carries though; it’s colder where we live now outside the urban island!

Play: I really should do more fun activities but I’ve been pretty worn out recently and he’s getting to do lots of fun stuff at nursery. He played in the sandpit last week and he likes the little slide and today he did hand and foot prints at nursery. At home, causing the most destruction possible is still the most fun thing to do. That’s been particularly tricky when packing for the move and it’s lots easier now we’re not living out of boxes but it’s still been hard work trying to wrangle him and get unpacked. Aunty C bought the Toot Toot ‘Cool car’ to go with the Toot Toot fire engine that Uncle P and Aunty H bought him at Christmas and that’s a big big hit. He takes it in the car with him in the morning. It has a flashing light and it sings lots of songs, like the one currently going round and round and round and round in my head!!!!!!!!!! We played with mega blocks on Friday and I helped him build towers and sort and learn about colours and we played in the garden lots. I have no idea why but he was very keen to walk to the steps and try and get out of the gate….

Communication: I think the only real addition to his repertoire at the moment is that he now nods his head sometimes and is able to indicate ‘Yes’ more clearly. I think he’s getting closer with “Dada” too and he still signs ‘sleep’ whenever you say it but he’s just being cheeky!!